Images of the British Army equipment for the conduct of war-games on a map 1896.

by B.W. Kostwinner, Winschoten, The Netherlands.

This Game of War was manufactured for H.M. Government. I think it was produced in the third quarter of the nineteenth century. This one was made by V .& J. Figgins, but there were several manufacturers.

The Game of War was used by the British Army to train (young) officers in tactics on the battlefield. It had to be as realistic as possible. The strength was normally not above one division on each side.

The game was kept in a mahogany box. It consists of red and blue metal pieces with approximately 330 pieces of each color, representing the two forces (artillery, infantry cavalry and so on), as there were a table of losses, nippers, dices.

The box contains originally 15 maps on which the game was played. Unfortunately none of them is left at this game.

I use a copy of a sheet from maps 144.e.12 from the British Library. This is one sheet size A0 and is one of a total of 56 sheets East and West of Dorking.

The one I use is near Aldershot.

The game was played with at least 3 officers. One commander on each side and an umpire.

The rules for this game has been written in “Rules for the Conduct of the War-Game on a map 1896”.

I personally would like to play the game as the officers did at the time, so any information in this matter would be very nice.